Dead
by Zombiechimpanzee
Summary: the survivors of the outbreak all deserve to have their stories remembered. these are their tales of sadness, heroism, tragedy, violence, love, cruelty, and horror.
1. Chapter 1

**The**

**Walking **

**Dead**

**Just one second**

The clock was winding down; I was locked in the building. So were a few others, we had tried our best to find a cure, but we had no clue what it was, it was day 65 post wildfire and we'd failed. There was less than half-an-hour left and all we could do was wait to be incinerated. "This is it huh?" Candice asked "yeah, I think it is." Neil replied distantly "it's only a moment right, the explosion?" Candice asked "yeah, just a moment and there's no biological material left in this entire building." Jarred said.

"I want to take my chances out there." Keith said "too late, you should have left with Karen then. That was your last chance." I said. "Linda!" Candice exclaimed "what? That was all of our last chance to have chosen life, even if we found a cure right now we'd be able to say, hey we got the BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM! It'd go down with this building, two nights ago was the last chance to choose life. We all chose to die quickly." I said.

"We can try can't we?" Keith asked "no, there's no way to get the top doors open, again, when Karen left she picked the absolute last time possible to leave." I said "FUCK!" Neil cursed. "What?" Candice asked "we fucking failed! We failed the entire world! GOD FUCKING DAMN IT!" he yelled pushing over a computer.

"Please, just calm down." I said "how the fuck are you so calm?" Keith asked me "calm about what?" I asked "ABOUT DYING! WE'RE ALL ABOUT TO DIE IN A FIREY EXPLOSION! AND YOU AREN'T WORRIED AT FUCKING ALL!" he yelled getting within inches of my face. "I knew I'd probably die in this place a long time ago, I've had that bit of my life figured out long before this disease." I said "but you're okay with it?" Candice asked.

I stood up and looked her in the eyes "I accepted that eventually some horrible thing would happen and that the building would blow up, and I'd probably be in here when it did, this is how I assumed I'd die, I would love to die of old age, that'd be great, to be so old that my heart was basically a fucking mechanical pump, but I figured that wouldn't be a privilege I'd get. I'm surprised none of you figured this out either." I said.

We sat in silence for another ten minutes; I looked at the clock **5:00. **"Anyone up for finding god?" Keith joked pulling out a pocket bible. "I never knew you were religious." Candice said surprised "I'm not, my wife was, and I figured it'd be good to have the good book as a backup plan in case it turned out the big religions were right and there is a god, maybe I could convert just in time." He joked.

Neil simply sat and stared at nothing, I could see he couldn't accept it, he wished he'd left with Karen. I looked at the clock again **3:12** left. That was all the time I had to live. Candice looked at it and began to sob uncontrollably "hey, hey, hey. Shhhh shhhh." Keith said hugging her.

"Let her cry, burying sadness doesn't help." I said "will you just fucking shut your fucking face!" Keith snapped. I decided to be quiet, let the rest of them be. In the last two minutes they went through grief, they tried to rationalize the situation, became angry, and tried to bargain. They denied all of this, they denied this was real, tried to claim it was a dream. They all began to sink, their emotions all overpowered by sadness.

**0:15**

All the time left for us, we all linked hands and held each other tightly. I heard the pumps filling the room with oxygen and other components of the aerosol into the air. Then I heard the ignition and felt a wave of heat rushing towards me. "I'm sorry." I said just before being engulfed in flames. It hurt for only a…

The Oregon C.D.C. building explosion had no survivors; they failed to find a cure for the outbreak and along with the other C.D.C. buildings across the nation adhered to protocol. The loss of these brilliant minds cannot be overstated.


	2. Chapter 2

**The**

**Walking **

**Dead**

**This Is Our Home**

It had been over two months since society collapsed to the masses of the dead, corpses walking with the living. No one knows how they function or why, all we know is that a bite kills you, and when you die you get up, you try and eat the living, and there's nothing left of you when you rise, it's just your body none of your mind stays. My parents, my girlfriend, my brother, and my grandmother have all gone through that, turned into a subhuman cannibalistic monster, my grandpa and I are all that's left of our family, we have no blood relatives left.

We've been living in a campsite in the mashes, an old Indian village, thirty huts, about twenty-five people living here including us, and mud, water, and reeds giving us cover and protection from dead. Grandpa and I are hunting today, tracking a deer in the area surrounding the marsh.

"It went that way." Grandpa said pointing north and running, I followed him closely, I could easily outpace him but I couldn't track like him, at least not yet. As I ran I heard leaves crunch underfoot, and the footsteps of the deer ahead, somewhere in the woods. I ducked under branches, leapt over fallen trees, and mantled over rocks to pursue the deer [I will not lose this deer, I will not lose it.] I thought to myself.

I had my spear ready, twenty minutes ago grandpa had put an arrow in the deer and we were running it down. We were gaining on it now, I could hear it, and the deer couldn't be more than twenty feet ahead now. I saw the deer jumping through the woods and I sprinted towards it, I could catch it, I knew I could. The deer was getting slower and wasn't able to keep up its sprint anymore.

Within thirty seconds I was within striking distance of the deer. I lunged forward and rammed my spear into the deer's shoulder then let go. The deer took one more bound and then fell, violently spasming. I drew my knife and quickly stabbed it into the back of the deer's head, severing the spine.

"Good job Caleb." Grandpa said "thanks Gramps." I replied panting "let's get this back to camp." He said pulling a tarp out and wrapping the deer in it. We carried the deer for twenty minutes before we got to our canoe and we tied it onto the top, then we shoved off and paddled for camp. There was really only one waterway to our camp and we all knew it, it was hidden by some reeds we'd cut. When we got back to camp Grandpa and I untied and unwrapped the deer and proudly carried it to the firepit. After we put the deer down a few people took over cooking it, I decided to go hang out with some kids my age. There were four other kids my age in camp, Luke, Tyler, Sara, and Gabby, the newest arrival; we were the only teenagers around, the other kids in camp were two annoying twins and they were eight.

The others were hanging out near a hut; they were making arrows and string for the hunters. I sat down and resumed working on my bow; I was trying to make a recurve dogwood bow. "Hey Caleb." Sara said smiling "hi Sara." I replied smiling back "so I saw you and gramps caught a deer today." Luke said "yeah." I said "do you ever say more than two words?" Tyler asked "yes." I replied.

"Is she okay?" I asked gesturing towards the hut "Gabby, yeah, she's just adjusting. It's only been two days, and from what I can tell her whole group was either killed or captured to be killed. I think she lost her only friends, she'll adjust but for now we give her time." Sara said; Sara was always looking out for people, if someone wasn't feeling alright she was the first to try and make things alright, when a new member came into the group she was the first to say welcome. She was generous in her love for others, and her love was unconditional.

"I'll go check on her." Tyler said "good, she's probably hungry as hell still." Sara said. Aside from Sara Tyler had been spending the most time with the newcomer, he had taken "quite a liking to her, and she to him." as Grandpa put it. I was focused on my bow, I was almost done too, I would string it and shoot it for the first time this afternoon. "I can't wait to see how your bow shoots." Sara said "me too." I replied worried, Grandpa told me the first arrow from a new bow always was the most nervously released.

"Caleb, we need to talk." Grandpa said putting a hand on my shoulder "about what?" I asked "some of the other men and I are talking about the problem we've been having, you need to be part of this." he whispered in my ear "okay." I answered as I got up. We walked to the hut furthest from any other and stepped inside, I saw the other four men who hunted "hello Caleb, sit down so we can talk." Maurice said "what is it?" I asked.

"the group nearby is starting to encroach on our hunting ground, we can't have them cutting into our supply of wild game, and as you know Arron disappeared a week ago, the only explanation is they captured him, the dead he could handle, and there aren't many around here." Maurice said "we shouldn't start a fight with them, but if they attack we have to retaliate. We can't let them think we can be walked over." Mike said.

"I agree." I said "I do too, Caleb and I can go scout their camp tonight, we know where it is." Grandpa said "thank you both, remember if you are caught send them south to Orinda, they'll get a nasty surprise." Maurice reminded. We nodded and after a few more minutes we left the hut and resumed our jobs.

When I left the tent I was instantly met by Sara "you're going tonight aren't you?" she asked with a look of disapproval "We need to know if they're a threat." I said "but can't we just talk to them? Like we do with the people at the reservoir." She said "they aren't like that group, they've threatened us before." I said "but we don't need to start a war." Sara said "you're right." I replied "then don't do this." she pleaded "I'm not starting the war, we're just showing we're not going to bend over for them, we won't kill anyone, I promise." I said "okay." Sara replied hugging me.

**Six hours later**

Grandpa and I had hidden the canoe in the normal place and made our way to the forest camp. We made our way through their alarm wires and watched them from the brush. They had a two hundred by three hundred foot clearing as their camp; it was full of tents and one RV. They had at least thirty adults walking around, ten or so teenagers, and twenty small children, on top of that one woman looked pregnant. The people were well armed; almost all casually carried some sort of weapon on them, most had a bat, machete, club, or spear. Some of them carried guns, some magazine fed pistols, a few 22. Rifles, three shoguns, and one man had what looked like a flintlock rifle.

"Grandpa, do you see Arron anywhere?" I asked "no, but they all seem to avoid the small tent in the center of camp." Grandpa said curiously. I heard a rustling behind me and turned to see Sara, rifle slung over her shoulder "shit Sara, be careful." I whispered "why are you here?" Grandpa asked "I didn't want you to get hurt, three pairs of eyes are better than two." She said "fine but keep your head down, you get shot it's not my fault." Grandpa said. "Why Sara?" I asked "I didn't like that the two of you were going alone." She said "but you're risking your life." I said "so are you, it's my life to risk." She said scooting closer to me.

We watched their camp for hours silently, waiting for something happen. All the while Sara was only inches from me, she held my hand in hers, her grip was like a vice too. We just kept sitting in the bush, waiting to see if they had Arron, or if they would talk about attacking us. Sara began to squeeze my hand tighter, then I heard her inhale three times, quickly I covered her mouth and nose and held her close before she sneezed.

"AAACHOUGH!" she sneezed muffled by my body. Suddenly people in the camp looked up and around the area. We started to crawl our way out of the wires when Sara touched one wire and the cans jangled "crap!" I cursed getting up and starting to run. Grandpa and Sara quickly got to their feet and ran too. Now I heard yells and cries "those swamp people!" "GET'M!" "PASS THE RIFLE!" "OVER HERE!" they yelled.

We all ran through the forest as fast as we could, Grandpa and I moved like oil across water, Sara sadly moved with much less ease. She stumbled over fallen branches and tree roots; she would lose her balance on the uneven and loose forest floor. I couldn't go back for her; if I did I'd slow both of us down, probably get us killed.

We ran for what seemed like hours until we came to our canoes and we pushed off the shore. Sara and I were in one canoe and Grandpa was nowhere to be seen, I couldn't worry about him right now, I needed to focus. Sara and I paddled as fast as we could, trying to get out into the reeds so they couldn't shot at us. We were almost home free and I turned around to talk to Sara "we're home free." I said. CRAAAACK!

The noise made both of us jump and I quickly turned around and paddled. We pulled the canoe into our camp's dock and we walked to camp. "That was a close one huh Sara?" I asked, she didn't reply. "Sara?" I asked turning around and saw her with her arms folded over her stomach, she was shaking violently and there was a small trickle of blood from the corner of her mouth. "Sara!" I exclaimed taking two swift steps to catch her as she collapsed "Sara, please stay awake, HELP!" I yelled "please Sara stay with me, come on Sara, don't give up." I pleaded.

She was now shaking weakly, her face and hands turned pale and her gaze was distant, like she was looking at something a mile away. Now others were running to help, her parents collapsed at the sight of their daughter dying. Two men picked her up with a blanket stretched between them and rushed her to camp. She was motionless, her shaking stopped and she simply lay still.

**The next morning**

Sara passed away overnight, she died with her parents holding her hands, Grandpa arrived at around three AM and I told him what had happened. "Caleb, it wasn't your fault, Sara followed us of her own free will, you aren't to blame." He said with a hand on my shoulder. He was wrong, if I hadn't turned around to talk to her she'd still be alive, if I'd just paddled whoever shot her wouldn't have had that shot. It was my fault.

**Three days later **

I was out hunting by the road since deer had started using roads to travel. I walked with a 22. Rifle in my hands, and I scanned the area. Ahead I saw a car parked with a girl about my age standing next to it; I approached cautiously in case she was going to shoot me. Her curly dirty blonde hair was put back in a bun; in her slender hand she held a dark grey pistol. I took one step and heard a twig snap under my foot. She whirled around and aimed her gun at my face "who are you?" she asked hand shaking "no one dangerous, I swear. I'm sorry I scarred you." I said setting down my rifle and putting my hands up.

I looked her in her brown eyes, she stared right back. Her stare seemed uneasy and forced "is something wrong?" I heard from the woods to the side of the road as a boy with a machete asked emerged from the brush followed by a girl with black hair and a shotgun. "I swear I'm friendly, I live near here, I'm out hunting, my name's Caleb." I said extending a hand to the girl with the pistol. "I'm Noelle." she said taking my hand and giving a slight smile.


	3. Chapter 3

**The**

**Walking **

**Dead**

**I hate goodbyes**

I woke up to silence, nothing but silence. Last night my girlfriend, Lana was bitten, she's been running a fever since midnight and is getting weaker by the minute, I must have fallen asleep. I couldn't help but try and rationalize things, come up with a way she'd be okay, the army or FEMA would find us and give her a cure. I looked at her, she was turning pale as a ghost, and her face was smooth and shined with sweat. Her small hands shook uncontrollably, she curled her long legs up to her chest and tried to cross her arms over her knees but couldn't. Her dark brown eyes were bloodshot and barley open, her long black hair was tied back in a ponytail and was hanging to the side.

"Everything will be fine babe, you'll be fine." I said "please don't lie, Jake, don't, don't lie." She said "I'm not lying, Lana, you'll pull through, it's just a fever." I said "Jake, no one's ever survived a bite; we've seen it happen a hundred times." She said. "no, you won't die, you'll be the first to survive a bite, just hang on for a day, maybe two at the most." I pleaded "Jake, I'm barley awake, if I go to sleep I might not get up. But I can't stay awake forever." She rasped.

"Have some water-" I started as I reached for my water bottle "No! You'll need that, just let me go." She said "Lana, no. please no." I begged. I began to cry, tears slipped down my face "Jake, let me go, just don't give up please." She said weakly "Lana, I–I won't know what to do, I'm useless, I can't start fire for crap, I-" I said "just promise me, promise me you won't say goodbye," she said "I hate goodbyes." She grabbed my hand weakly, I gently squeezed her hand.

I felt her light grip slowly loosen and her head leaned back limply. "Lana?" I asked "Lana?" I gently tapped her shoulder, she didn't respond, she was motionless. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my folding knife, opened it and stabbed it into Lana's forehead. I twisted the blade and pulled back, removing it from her forehead. "Damnit Lana, I'm sorry, please forgive me." I pleaded "goodbye."


	4. Chapter 4

**The**

**Walking **

**Dead**

**What do you call them?**

We all walked into the bar quietly, when we stepped in a few people turned to look before looking away uninterested. We found a table, pulled up three chairs and sat down; I grabbed an extra chair and put my feet up on the seat. It had been months since the disease hit and the world fell apart; now what had been California was like the old west, lawless, dangerous, and unpredictable. After we had been sitting for awhile a girl walked in with a M4 and a backpack "who knows where I can find Lee Davis?" she asked loudly "that'd be me." the bartender said.

The girl walked past us, as she did I saw six or seven scalps tied to her backpack, I knew instantly she was a bounty hunter, here to collect a bounty or a reward. My friends and I watched uneasily as she approached the bartender, she then reached back and tied the scalps from her pack without looking and set them on the bar "I'd like my reward now." she said. The bartender casually grabbed a box of ammo and handed it to her along with some food "I was promised 5.56×45mm bullets, these are .22 rounds." She said "all I got." The bartender said "you don't get it, you promised me 5.56 ammo, not .22, so you'll find some or I'll blow your brains out." She said "what, with a gun you ain't got bullets to spare for?" the man said.

"No, with this." the girl said drawing an old revolver and putting it to the bartender's forehead. "5.56, now." she demanded "okay, it's in back, I'll go get it." The bartender said weakly "oh, I thought you were out? Were you lying to me?" she asked sarcastically keeping the gun on the man's forehead "calm down!" a boy with brown hair, blue eyes and a tomahawk on his belt said "this weasel tried to cheat me out of ammo he owes me!" the girl yelled "yeah, and pointing the gun at his head isn't gonna help you much." The boy said "get her the ammo you owe her now." he ordered grabbing the girl's hand and moving it away from the bartender's face.

The bartender quickly ran and grabbed the ammo for the girl "that wasn't too bad was it Lee?" she asked "n-n-no ma'm." Lee stuttered "that's enough, take your reward and go." The boy said "or do you need me to guide you out?" he asked putting his left hand on his hawk "I think I out gun you." The girl said pulling back the hammer on her revolver "I've already got a gun trained on your head so it doesn't matter." He said flicking the safety off on a silenced pistol in his right hand held low and angled up.

"Okay, you win." she said releasing her revolver's hammer slowly and putting it in its holster, She then walked out and closed the door. We all sat in silence for a few more seconds "well, shake your fucking heads your eyes must be stuck!" the boy yelled before slowly walking to a seat by the door by a native American guy and a girl with dirty blond hair sitting in one chair, an Asian guy and another girl sitting in two other chairs, and two people in hooded jackets leaning against a wall.

Everyone began to go back to talking and drinking after a moment's thought. After about ten minutes the four people at the table next to us were talking about the dead. "so this one time I was trapped in a tool shed by some rot-walkers and I only had a broken rake, and a pocket knife-" he started "wait, you call em' rot-walkers?" Hanna asked from our table "what do you call em' huh?" the man asked "ghouls." I replied. "Well, both your names for them are damn stupid sounding, I myself call them chompers." The man across from him at his table said "and you said what we called them was stupid? Seriously?" I asked.

At this point someone walking into the bar heard us talking and sat down, entering the conversation. "So, what'd you call them?" Heath asked the newcomer "I call them cadavers." He replied "makes sense." I commented. "So, what's the most you've seen at one time?" one person asked "I've seen about a hundred once." A man said "seen easily three times that." A woman said "the most I've seen is a thousand, at least. Probably more." I said "bullcrap!" one man yelled standing up.

"I escaped L.A. myself, I saw easily a group that big, that city fell hard." I said "damn, had family down there, guess it's too late to worry now." the woman said "I knew a guy who escaped Oakland, got bit three weeks back though. Good man didn't deserve to die like that." One man said. Suddenly we all heard a siren and rushed outside.

I looked and saw the town wall being breeched by ghouls "grab your guns and take the creepers out!" the brown haired boy yelled drawing his pistol and quickly popping five ghouls in the head. He and his friends formed a loose circle and went to work.

My friends and I raised our weapons and took cover behind a dumpster. I fired my rifle and exploded the head of a ghoul a hundred yards away. Everyone able in the town began shooting ghouls, but it wasn't enough, there must've been hundreds of them, all zeroed in on this town. the boy and his group all pulled a melee weapon out and began pushing through the horde "you kids crazy?" someone yelled before the kids had exited the walls and ran for the woods outside town.

"They got the right idea, town's lost, abandon ship!" Heath yelled killing a ghoul with the butt of his shotgun. We all began to flee the town; some people got swarmed over, eaten alive. A few people like us got past the walls and ran for the wooded hills.

Once safe for the moment I looked back at the town, it was completely swarmed, covered in the dead. We'd all forgotten that they were still a threat; the ghouls were still an ever-present danger to us. We'd need to remember that, from now on we needed to remember the havoc, the chaos the ghouls could cause, all with a bite. They would haunt us forever.


End file.
